It depends. Thanks to the Metaxas regime the monarchy had lost a significant part of her support among monarchists. The only thing to save it in OTL was the communists starting a civil war from effectively 1943. Remove this as a factor, and just with the 50,000 evacuated to Egypt, you've drastically altered things and monarchy's prospects in the inevitable post liberation referendum are going to be... bleak.Logically the Venzelist-majority Crete working closely with the British Commonwealth would lead to a Greece where the monarchy is not abolished, but rather stripped of it's remaining power?
I'm not so sure about the political meddling as ex-colonial forces were also British trained which did not prevent them throwing coups.It's important to remember that whatever Greek forces are evacuated to Crete & Egypt will be rebuilt into a new army by the British, and that the rebuilding will happen along British lines & with British approved officers. The next generation of senior greek officers will come from this army and they are unlikely to be inclined to political meddling.
The Greek army was highly politicised and incredibly prone to coups throughout the 20th century. The British won't necessarily be looking to rebuild it on explicitly non-political lines, but their priority will be to ensure that it is a professional force which will fight the Nazi's and that should help weed out the political officers who are more interested in intrigue than doing their jobs.I'm not so sure about the political meddling as ex-colonial forces were also British trained which did not prevent them throwing coups.
If they are already there could those 2 regiments be used to hold the pass if Cretan 5th Division will not be willing to do it. Also when in OTL did the Greek army give the order to start evacuating units from the mainland? How much extra can they carry if they already moving the new recuits.However, there is another unit that can be evacuated already. In OTL, by April 18th , two regiments of the XI Division were at the Metsovo Pass close to Kalabaka. My source is the "Abridged History of the Greek-Italian and Greek-German War", the official history by the Greek Army General Staff. These two regiments can be lifted to the Lianokladi railway station at the very same day. Then, the rest of the aforementioned units can be lifted during the following days.
But how many days until the escape route closes? IF the Germans continue their advance at the very same rate as in OTL, greek units ITTL can evacuate via the railroad for 4 consecutive days until the night of April 21st.
There will be more Epirus Army divisions one or two days behind those two regiments. They are not needed since the WMFAS is on its way in the north-west. They can be send immediately to Lianokladi while the WMFAS units that won't be able to get in a train can be left behind in Kalabaka.If they are already there could those 2 regiments be used to hold the pass if Cretan 5th Division will not be willing to do it.
In OTL there was no opportunity to evacuate units since all field armies were cut off. The request to evacuate the trainees took place sometime around April 14th.Also when in OTL did the Greek army give the order to start evacuating units from the mainland?
One thing Greece wasn't short of was merchantmen. At any time there were two main convoys crossing the Aegean towards Piraeus: one from the Dardanelles and one from Egypt. Other than these, there were dozens of smaller coastal steamers around. And this estimation doesn't take into account the ships under RN command. Finding the ships will be the easiest part of the whole retreat.How much extra can they carry if they already moving the new recuits.
This has a certain buttefly of a different nature. The XI was recruiting from the Thessaloniki region, of its three regiments the 13th and 50th were mobilized from Thessaloniki itself while the 65th was based in Kilkis in peacetime. Or in other words the majority of the Greek-Jews mobilized were serving mostly on the 50th with a fair number on the 13th, the 50th was nicknamed the "Cohen regiment" from the large number of Greek Jews serving with it. If the two regiments escape south and then off the mainland you've just saved several thousand Salonican Jews from the holocaust...However, there is another unit that can be evacuated already. In OTL, by April 18th , two regiments of the XI Division were at the Metsovo Pass close to Kalabaka. My source is the "Abridged History of the Greek-Italian and Greek-German War", the official history by the Greek Army General Staff. These two regiments can be lifted to the Lianokladi railway station at the very same day. Then, the rest of the aforementioned units can be lifted during the following days.
Lets put it in some perspective. Operation Demon evacuated about 50,000 empire troops and roughly ~8,000 Greek troop in sic days, with Piraeous being largely unavailable which is not the case here. So call it on average a bit below 10,000 men a day. Actually well over 10,000/day were being evacuated on the 25th you had 10,200 ANZACs plus the RAF evacuated, call it 13,000 men or so. Eleven days from 19th April to April 29th means it should be able to evacuate on average ~110,000 men. Add the three days delay so far and you are getting up to 140,000... thus between 60 and 90,000 Greeks.If they are already there could those 2 regiments be used to hold the pass if Cretan 5th Division will not be willing to do it. Also when in OTL did the Greek army give the order to start evacuating units from the mainland? How much extra can they carry if they already moving the new recuits.
Navy had about 18,000 personnel. Air force included ~300 trained pilots. Getting a considerable fraction of either out would be certainly quite useful... in both cases you are likely looking of the HAF in exile being more than the OTL 3 squadrons and the navy having the manpower to grow even bigger (and with fewer political reliability issues) and by 1944 even in OTL it was at over 8,500 men with Averof, 13 destroyers, 4 corvettes, 4 submarines and several landing ships and minesweepers.What I am looking forward to, is to see whether the better handled retreat would affect the Battle of Thermopylae. If it is decided to hold the position a couple more days and in addition to the 3 days already gained, then there is enough time to evacuate other valuable manpower: air force and naval base personnel, army rear echelon units etc
Yeah before Ranke eh?centuries
Poulantzas would be a better wicket here surely. You can’t get funded for Frankfurt in the history area mate. Too much structure not enough subjectivity.such as 100k AUD from the incredibly left-wing ARC (that's my subjective hot take
Lets put it in some perspective. Operation Demon evacuated about 50,000 empire troops and roughly ~8,000 Greek troop in sic days, with Piraeous being largely unavailable which is not the case here. So call it on average a bit below 10,000 men a day. Actually well over 10,000/day were being evacuated on the 25th you had 10,200 ANZACs plus the RAF evacuated, call it 13,000 men or so. Eleven days from 19th April to April 29th means it should be able to evacuate on average ~110,000 men. Add the three days delay so far and you are getting up to 140,000... thus between 60 and 90,000 Greeks.
According to Wilson's final report on the campaign, the 10,000 left behind might not have been abandoned if bad luck had not intervened. Some 1,500 had been left stranded at Nauplion, and 700 were lost there when a transport was sunk and the men rescued by destroyers, only to have them sunk in their turn by enemy aircraft. But the biggest loss was some 8,000 men left behind because of a muddle at Kalamata: the enemy broke into town and captured the landing officer, who had the code to signal the warships to come alongside the adequate piers, and there was a rumor of mines. As a result a cruiser and accompanying destroyers did not take off the men on the last night, although the Germans had been driven out of the town again